• The doctrine applies when a court in an earlier case has taken jurisdiction over a person, over status, or over land. It is based on the principle that under res judicata, the parties are bound by the judgment, whether the issue was the court’s jurisdiction or something else. The bootstrap doctrine, however, cannot give effectiveness to a judgment by a court that had no subject-matter jurisdiction. For example, parties cannot, by appearing before a state court, “bootstrap” that court into having jurisdiction over a federal matter. [Cases: Judgment 818. C.J.S. Judgments § 986.]
bootstrap doctrine
Conflict of laws. The doctrine that forecloses collateral attack on the jurisdiction of another state’s court that has rendered final judgment.
